More QE Taper Talk From the Federal Reserve Regional Presidents

Fed Taper Talk

They are serious this time, really. Having missed their chance last week to taper the Fed’s $85 billion a month Quantitative Easing (QE) bond buying program, several Federal Reserve Presidents are letting the world know they still have taper on their minds.

Here is what a few of the Federal Reserve Presidents are saying:

St.Louis Federal Reserve President, James Bullard

The Fed might taper in October

The morning after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting last week where the Fed decided to continue the $85 billion a month QE bond buying program in place because the economy was still weak, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard told Bloomberg News that if the data improved, the Fed might taper QE in October.

Kansas City Federal Reserve President, Esther George

Delaying taper could hurt credibility

Ms. George who was the lone dissenter in the Fed’s decision not to taper QE last week spoke at a dinner in Denver last night where she expressed concern that “delaying action not only allows potential costs to grow, it also has the potential to threaten the credibility and the predictability of future monetary policy actions.

Richmond Federal Reserve President, Jeffrey Lacker

Tapering too soon could hurt credibility, but we might do it anyway

In contrast to Ms. George, Mr. Lacker said tapering too quickly could hurt the Fed’s credibility and told reporters in Stockholm, Sweden yesterday and echoing Bullard noted “It could be hard to do it (tapering) in October without losing face, but I don’t see why we couldn’t do it,”

Chicago Federal Reserve President, Charles Evans

We could taper in October or December or maybe later

Mr. Evans speaking in Oslo, Norway today to reporters said “But whether or not we’ll have enough confidence at the October meeting or the December meeting, I just can’t say that with a lot of certainty. I think there’s a decent chance of that. But it could go a little bit longer”

Federal Reserve Governor, Jeremey Stein

I voted for not tapering, but I could have voted for it

At a conference in Frankfort, Germany, Mr. Stein said he voted for not tapering QE “because I continue to support our efforts to create a highly accommodative monetary environment so as to help the recovery along by using both asset purchases” but added “I would have been comfortable” with the Fed tapering.

New York Federal Reserve President, James Dudley

Don’t rule out QE this year

Mr. Dudley, like Messrs Bullard and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, mentioned that the decision to taper “depends on the data” and “certainly would not want to rule out” the possibility of a 2013 taper. In June Mr. Dudley notes that depending on the data, the size of QE might also rise.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President, Narayana Kocherlakota

We need more QE

Mr. Kocherlakota told the rotary club in Houghton, Michigan, United States (doesn’t Mr. K get to jet off to Europe like his colleagues after Fed board meetings?) that in order to bring unemployment down the Fed should be doing whatever it takes and “doing whatever it takes will mean keeping a historically unusual amount of monetary stimulus in place, and possibly providing more stimulus”

Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke

there is no fixed calendar, if the data confirms we could taper this year, after that it depends on the data

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